The primary aim of the Electronic Services Core will be to provide two related but independent services. First, the core will serve as a facility for design and fabrication of new equipment and experimental devices, for the development of new or upgrade of existing software, and for maintenance and repair of electronic and hardware equipment. Second, the core will serve as a catalyst for the initiation of integrated neuroscience research relating cellular or molecular approaches to anatomical, physiological or behavioral experimentation. Core facilities will be located at the Fay and Carl Simons Center for Biology of Hearing and Deafness at the Central Institute for the Deaf and will serve as a central resource for the many inner ear scientists located in the region. The core will provide personnel and facilities for design and fabrication of hardware and software for individual, collaborative, and new inner ear investigators. A core director and core engineer will comprise the core staff and provide consultation, supervision, and maintenance functions for core users. The core will consist of three separate well equipped workshops, including electronics, materials, and machining workshops for the use of core investigators or their staff. The core engineer will provide design consultation and fabrication services for electronic equipment, experimentation equipment, or material devices as needed during the course of research projects. The core engineer will also provide software development and testing functions, particularly for data acquisition and analyses using several standard platforms (LabView, CED, Axon Instruments, MATLAB). The core engineer will also provide these same services to the Digital Imaging, Gene Expression, and Electron Microscopy cores in support of their objectives. The core engineer will maintain core equipment and a core supply stock in each of the workshops. The Electronic Services Core will provide individual training sessions, seminars, and an annual short course in the use of core equipment and facilities. The core director will promote integrated research collaborations by offering consultation and core services for the development of functional experimentation of tissues and systems that have been manipulated at the cellular or molecular level.